Pelageya Fedorovna Shajn, ''née'' Sannikova (Пелагея Фёдоровна Шайн) (22 September 1894 – 27 August 1956), was a Russian

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

in the Soviet Union, and the first woman credited with the discovery of a

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...

, at the

Simeiz Observatory Simeiz Observatory (also spelled Simeis or Simeïs) was an astronomy research observatory until the mid-1950s. It is located on Mount Koshka, Crimea, , by the town of Simeiz. Part of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, it is currently used f ...

in 1928. Pelageya also discovered numerous

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as e ...

s and co-discovered the periodic, Jupiter-family comet 61P/Shajn–Schaldach. She was married to prominent Soviet astronomer Grigory Shajn.

Biography

Pelageya Shajn was born in 1894 to a peasant family in the village Ostanin located in the

Solikamsky District Solikamsky District (russian: Солика́мский райо́н) is an administrative district (raion), one of the thirty-three in Perm Krai, Russia.Law #416-67 Within the framework of municipal divisions, it is incorporated as Solikamsky Mun ...

of the

Perm Governorate Perm Governorate (russian: link=no, Пермская губерния) was an administrative unit of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union from 1781 to 1923. It was also known as the ''government of Perm''. It was located on both slopes of t ...

. She was the wife of prominent Soviet astronomer Grigory Shajn, who was also her colleague at the

. Her maiden name was Sannikova (Санникова). In 1928, she discovered the asteroid 1112 Polonia, the first minor planet to be discovered by a woman. She died 27 August 1956, shortly after her husband had died on 4 August the same year.

Awards and honors

Main-belt asteroid 1190 Pelagia, discovered in 1930 by

Grigory Neujmin Grigory Nikolayevich Neujmin (russian: Григорий Николаевич Неуймин; – 17 December 1946) was a Georgian–Russian astronomer, native of Tbilisi in Georgia, and a discoverer of numerous minor planets as well as 6 periodi ...

who worked at Simeiz, was named in her honor. In addition the asteroid 1648 Shajna was named in her and her husband's memory, while the lunar crater '' Shayn'' was exclusively named after her husband.

Discoveries

Her astronomical discoveries are credited under the name P. F. Shajn. As with her husband, her last name, "Shajn", is sometimes given as "Schajn", "Shain" or "Shayn", the latter being the modern English transliteration. Pelageya Shajn discovered 19

minor planets According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...

''(see list below)'' and about 140

s. In 1949, she also co-discovered 61P/Shajn–Schaldach, a

periodic comet Periodic comets (also known as short-period comets) are comets with orbital periods of less than 200 years or that have been observed during more than a single perihelion passage (e.g. 153P/Ikeya–Zhang). "Periodic comet" is also sometimes used ...

of the

Jupiter family A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are ...

. However, the non-periodic comet

C/1925 F1 This is a list of parabolic and hyperbolic comets in the Solar System. Many of these comets may come from the Oort cloud, or perhaps even have interstellar origin. The Oort Cloud is not gravitationally attracted enough to the Sun to form into a ...

(Shajn-Comas Solá; also known as Comet 1925 VI or Comet 1925a) was co-discovered by her husband rather than by her.

Biography

Awards and honors

Discoveries

List of discovered minor planets

See also

References

Further reading